Detection of Sleep-Disordered Breathing in Patients with Spinal Cord Injury Using a Smartphone

Abstract

Patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) have an increased risk of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), which can lead to serious comorbidities and impact patients’ recovery and quality of life. However, sleep tests are rarely performed on SCI patients, given their multiple health needs and the cost and complexity of diagnostic equipment. The objective of this study was to use a novel smartphone system as a simple non-invasive tool to monitor SDB in SCI patients. We recorded pulse oximetry, acoustic, and accelerometer data using a smartphone during overnight tests in 19 SCI patients and 19 able-bodied controls. Then, we analyzed these signals with automatic algorithms to detect desaturation, apnea, and hypopnea events and monitor sleep position. The apnea–hypopnea index (AHI) was significantly higher in SCI patients than controls (25 ± 15 vs. 9 ± 7, p < 0.001). We found that 63% of SCI patients had moderate-to-severe SDB (AHI ≥ 15) in contrast to 21% of control subjects. Most SCI patients slept predominantly in supine position, but an increased occurrence of events in supine position was only observed for eight patients. This study highlights the problem of SDB in SCI and provides simple cost-effective sleep monitoring tools to facilitate the detection, understanding, and management of SDB in SCI patients.

Sleep Staging Using Noncontact-Measured Vital Signs

“…Sleep plays an important role in body recovery, memory, and immunity enhancement, which takes almost onethird of human life [1]. Poor sleep quality usually results in physical and mental health problems, such as fatigue, anxiety, and even death [2].…”

Avaliação da experiência dos usuários de um aplicativo para treinamento físico de pessoas portadoras de lesão medular

“…So they designed an app about selfmanagement to prevent those secondary complications (9). Other apps are being created in different necessary fields like prevention of pressure injuries (10), transitional care (11), and detection of sleep-disordered (12).Yet this field is underexploring its possibilities because more apps and quality information will lead to more social inclusion considering their individuality and diversity. This article is based on a project cold Wheels, which is a subdivision of a PA app cold VirtuaGym, where amputees and SCI people receive support to do PE, and has a social media platform and a nutrition section (13).…”

“…estão envolvidos tumores, herniações de discos, hematomas epidurais e outras questões médicas e complicações cirurgias, sendo responsáveis por 4,3% dos casos de LM(12) realizados com maior ênfase neste trajeto, levando em consideração cada saída de par de nervos da coluna e seus dermátomos e miótomos correspondentes, para assim especificar as áreas com alteração, as áreas preservadas e as zonas de preservação parcial. A partir deste diagnóstico pode-se classificar como paraplegia e tetraplegia, ou ainda lesão alta ou baixa.…”